3yr old uses made-up words - what's that about?

[uberalice]

3yr old DS2 is bright and articulate for his age. However, he has a habit of making up words when he doesn't know what something is called. He'll use the same word for a few days, and the words often follow a similar pattern - what's that? It's a doona; it's a bala; it's a canna. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm not at all worried, in fact it's quite cute, but just wonder why he does it.

[StinkyPete]

my ds is now 4.3. he's always been bright and has always done this too. he is very imaginative and just likes to make up words, names, stories etc. i think it's fab and i'm sure will stand them in good stead in later childhood.

[Surfermum]

DD (4) does this. She'll sing a rhyme properly and then sing it again substituting new words but if she can't think of a word to rhyme, she'll make one up.

[funnypeculiar]

ds 3+ (who is, also, naturally quite bright and articulate ) has also been doing this for a while - it's a 'hulamarni' or a hoojihop or whatever. I reckon it's just playing about with sounds and seeing what happens.
My parents (lecturer in education & primary school teacher) say it's very common

[uberalice]

fp - I love your DS's words - they're fab!

[funnypeculiar]

A hoojahop is, perhaps not surprisingly a kind of mid air twist and hop, executed on your way down from the toilet step.
A hulamarni was something he found on the pavement
Todday, anyway.

In case you were wondering

[oooggs]

yep happens here too. Then he laughs at his own words/jokes (gets that from his dad )

[melpomene]

My dd1 (now 4) also does this. Sometimes she just babbles and plays with the sounds of made-up words. She is just getting to grips with the concept of rhyme, so she will come out with things like "Mapofa rhymes with sofa, doesn't it?"

She recently acquired a toy owl which she has named Vavoonia Baboonia

[uberalice]

My DH has just suggested that perhaps IKEA employ 3 yr olds to think of their product names

[Othersideofthechannel]

Me too Califrau although I find it gets harder as I get older.

[edam]

Ds (nearly four) does this too and thinks it's hilarious. Whatever floats his boat...

[Malaleche]

DD1 3.8 yo does this, she's bilingual (Spanish) and mixes sounds together to make up nonsense, she's just playing around with sounds - she can speak both langages fine. She made up a word for her girl parts - boditch, i love it.

[Surfermum]

PMSL @ vavoonia baboonia and uberalice's dh!